When teeth are badly decayed or heavily filled, a crown may be required to restore lost tooth tissue or protect what remains. Root-filled teeth are weakened due to the root filling and over time become more brittle. They will often require crowning to protect the tooth from fracturing. There are many types of crown and many different qualities of metal and porcelain.

1. Porcelain Bonded to MetalThe substructure of these crowns is of a dark precious metal with porcelain bonded to the metal. This type of crown is used where the crowns are subject to heavy biting forces and porcelain by itself would not be strong enough. Their downside though is that they do tend to show as they are not the best aesthetically; a dark line around the gum line which aesthetically is not the best thing. They also do not reflect the light as well as All Porcelain Crowns, and can appear yellow and false.

2. Gold CrownsGold crowns are not as popular as they once were due to the aesthetics, although some people love them and even want them on their front teeth.

3. All Ceramic CrownsThese have fantastic properties. They reflect light in such a way that they do not appear as "false teeth" but look real and alive. They contain no dark metal so there is no chance of a dark line appearing around the neck of the crown.